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ACC football rewind: Ten takeaways from Week 4, including why Maryland may be real deal

Brandon Ross 9-14-13

Tailback Brandon Ross and Maryland demolished West Virginia to improve to 4-0 for the first time since 2001, but the Terrapins' four opponents to date are only a combined 4-11.
(AP Photo | Patrick Semansky)

OK, not in a the-Terrapins-are-ready-to-leave-the-ACC-in-a-blaze-of-glory sort of way. Maryland is not Clemson or Florida State, and it possesses enough concerns to make a run at a 10-win season unlikely.

But the Terps are 4-0 after administering a 37-0 thumping of West Virginia on Saturday. It ended Maryland’s seven-game skid against the Mountaineers, was the Terps’ largest margin of victory against West Virginia since 1951 and matched the team’s win total from all of last season.

All of that made for a rainy celebration in Baltimore, where Maryland played Saturday for only the third time since 1998, and rightfully so. The Terps had absorbed more than a few embarrassingly lopsided losses to the Mountaineers since last beating them on New Year’s Day 2004 in the Gator Bowl. This was almost a decade’s worth of payback crammed into one afternoon.

Nonetheless, it’s also worth scrutinizing what Maryland’s nonconference opponents have done to date. The assortment of Connecticut, Florida International, Old Dominion and West Virginia are a combined 4-11. Those teams’ victories have come against Georgia State, Howard, The Citadel and William & Mary. It is not an accomplished lot.

By demolishing a power conference team that will probably finish around .500, Maryland demonstrated it should collect at least three or four victories on its manageable ACC schedule. It still doesn’t answer just how good the Terps are, but it’s safe to say they’re much, much improved over the first two dreary seasons of coach Randy Edsall’s tenure.

Nine other takeaways from Saturday’s action …

Does Georgia Tech have a defense to go with that triple-option juggernaut? The answer just might be yes, especially after shutting out North Carolina in the second half of a 28-20 victory. Frankly, that stands out a bit more than disposing of Elon and routing Duke.

The Yellow Jackets are 3-0 (2-0 ACC) and could be sitting in superb position if they can knock off Virginia Tech on Thursday night. It was a given the offense would be better with Vad Lee handling things at quarterback on a full-time basis, and its ability to stay on the field for more than 40 minutes made a difference. But Ted Roof’s defense allowed only 62 yards in four possessions in the second half. That matters, too.

Miami could remember its blowout of Savannah State for all the wrong reasons. It was an given Miami would throttle Savannah State. It was the ultimate pick-your-own-score game for the Hurricanes (and turned out that way, too, since the teams agreed to shorten the fourth quarter to 12 minutes), which meant the biggest priority of the night was staying healthy.

In the middle of the first quarter, Stephen Morris left with a right ankle injury. Ryan Williams was more than capable of leading the Hurricanes to a 77-7 victory, but Miami (3-0) could find itself in some trouble if Morris misses any time moving forward. Miami coach Al Golden told reporters Morris should be fine, but just the possibility of needing to shelve the senior makes this game more memorable than it should have been.

Pittsburgh just scored another touchdown. OK, that’s a slight exaggeration. But the Panthers did roll up 468 yards of offense in the first half en route to 598 yards for the game and a 58-55 victory over Duke.

Here’s what’s clear for the Panthers: Quarterback Tom Savage is plenty good enough to exploit the weapons at his disposal (wideouts Tyler Boyd and Devin Street and tailback James Conner, to name a few) to keep Pittsburgh competitive against most teams. Savage tied an ACC record with six touchdown passes, and he could be in for another fine day when Virginia visits Heinz Field next week.

Duke has some issues with defending the pass. “Some” understates things a bit. The Blue Devils have been scorched for 10 passing touchdowns in their first two conference games, with Georgia Tech (four) and now Pittsburgh (six) taking turns picking apart David Cutcliffe’s secondary.

That was a unit that was supposed to be more experienced this year, in part because of massive injuries a season ago. Instead, it has the look of a potentially chronic trouble spot --- even if an offense that still managed to toss up 55 points might be able to bail it out from time to time.

Beamer Ball was back (at least for a day) at Virginia Tech. Granted, the kicking situation at Virginia Tech is suboptimal at this point. But the Hokies still blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown in a 29-21 victory over Marshall.

That threatened to be the highlight for Virginia Tech, which needed triple overtime to finally fend off the Thundering Herd. But as underwhelming as the Hokies were the last two weeks (they beat East Carolina 15-10 on Sept. 14), they are halfway to bowl eligibility for the 21st consecutive season. A return to the program’s stout special teams roots will help nudge Virginia Tech along when it enters league play.

Speaking of special teams, Syracuse couldn’t have asked for better work from its kick block teams. Tulane was nothing special in the kicking game; far from it. But credit where it’s due when a team blocks two punts and a field goal the way the Orange did in a 52-17 victory.

The two blocked punts and a head-scratching Tulane fumble on a Syracuse punt set up three first-half touchdown drives that covered 38 yards. How good the Terrel Hunt-led offense really is still must be determined against better competition. Vibrant special teams (even if it doesn’t block three kicks every week) will provide some margin of error for the occasional mistake.

Wake Forest figured things out when it counted. In this case, “figured out” means “discovered a running game.” And that matters considering it clinched a 25-11 defeat of Army and a 2-2 mark.

The Demon Deacons trailed 11-10 in the third quarter after surrendering the unorthodox combination of three field goals and a safety. But in back-to-back touchdown drives, Wake had 13 carries for 103 yards and two touchdowns. This doesn’t solve all of what ails Jim Grobe’s team and it did come against Army as opposed to, say, Clemson. But there’s at least a little more hope than there was a week ago.

The beat goes on at Florida State. The Seminoles (3-0) blitzed Bethune-Cookman 54-6, scoring a defensive touchdown and then relying on a strong running game to cruise to victory.

This is as it should be. And with Boston College on deck Saturday, there really shouldn’t be a substantially different outcome as Florida State closes out September.

There was little to learn from Virginia’s 49-0 shutout of VMI, but that shouldn’t stop the Cavaliers from feeling good about themselves. When you outgain an overmatched opponent 580-79, there are no epic conclusions to draw. The Cavaliers should have pounded VMI, and they did exactly that.

Quarterback David Watford’s two interceptions are a bit of a concern, but there’s never a time when it is easy to hold an opponent to 1.4 yards per play. Virginia is much more likely to win low-scoring games this season (such as its opener against Brigham Young), and any sign of recovery from the Cavaliers’ defense after a predictably unpleasant encounter with Oregon should be viewed as welcome.